*head-desk*
Sigh. Here we go again . . .
*cue futile 3-page argument against circular reasoning*
Looks good.
I hadn't known that you'd been doing the JSC sound, or I'd have mentioned it before. It's only recently that I've heard any of the older laserdisc tracks--I've never even owned a laserdisc player. I grew up with 1992 vhs versions, and didn't know about any other mixes apart from the SE's until I came to this forum. It can get a bit confusing keeping track of them all, though I do find it very interesting. ;)
Marry him and Nag him to death.
Volunteers? I'm looking at you, ABC . . .
I'd say keep it the same for Star Wars, since there is noticeable difference between all the versions included on there. The other two can just be the stereo, 5.1, and 1993 mixes.
Since they likely weren't '85-remixed, it's probably safe to call them the theatrical mixes from 1980 and 1983.
Those covers are looking pretty awesome.
As far as the home stereo remixes go, I'm pretty dang certain that only Star Wars was ever really redone in 1985. From the samples that Darth Mallwalker sent me, I didn't detect any differences at all in either Empire or Jedi between the initial laserdisc release and the Japanese Special Collection (aside from the JSC being at a lower level). They are most definitely the exact same mix.
The Special Widescreen Edition of Jedi contains a stereo track that has certainly undergone some remastering, but not remixing. The peak volumes are flattened out and lowered by a couple decibels, which is readily visible from looking at the waveforms; but even with this change, there is very little audible difference from the earlier versions once the higher average volume is accounted for. It is undoubtedly the same mix as before, simply remastered with some slight peak limiting for whatever reason. I haven't heard the SWE for Empire, but if anything was done it probably amounts to no more difference than this, either.
Even the 1985 mix of Star Wars is nearly identical to the original stereo version. The only real change is the inclusion of C-3PO's line about the tractor beam being connected to the main reactor in seven locations, and some apparent widening to the stereo image according to Belbucus. With the sole exception of the one line of dialogue, I don't think they actually 'remixed' anything for this either, simply remastered and processed for better home sound quality.
None of the 35mm mixes have as wide a stereo image as the 70mm and 1993 versions. This is particularly noticeable in the music, and I would hazard a guess that this was probably intended to limit the amount of unwanted sound being sent to the rear channel when upmixed in Dolby Surround.
So it's probably not necessary to include two copies of what is essentially the same mix, for either ESB or RotJ. Even with SW there's not much difference, but there it's justified since there is actual change to the content.
Somehow a bunch of paranoid, money-grubbing bullshit artists on Fox News managed to convince a lot of people that finding a way to make sure everyone gets the health care they need is the worst thing since Hitler.
Those evil Communist Nazi Muslim Progressives sure are a threat to the very fabric of western society, aren't they?!
Sigh.
Really sorry to hear about DAYV's predicament.
In other news, butt soup.
Off-topic Post him to death!
Mate him with a giant black widow spider! (since, you know, they're said to eat their mates and all)
Frink, you're cracking me up, man. :p
Do the receiver and Bluray player have multi-channel analogue connection? You could potentially take advantage of lossless audio that way, though depending on the player's DAC quality it might not be all that much better than a lossy encode. Plus if there is processing being done it might end up converting back to digital again anyway, and some receivers have a problem with LFE levels coming out 10 db too low with this kind of connection, so it's not a sure thing. Bluray discs usually have AC3 640 kbps or DTS 1509 kbps as an alternative to the lossless sound, so at least you're getting the best lossy version possible; and of course if your speakers aren't very revealing the difference can be hard to perceive anyway . . .
I've never heard a 6.1 or 7.1 setup, so I don't have firsthand knowledge of what that sounds like. Now that you mention it I do remember seeing that some of the HP films were mixed that way. The dvd's have 5.1 Dolby-EX, so the additional rear channel is matrixed out of phase between the two side surrounds rather than being discrete. I get pretty good results with standard 5.1--my back speakers are off to the side and a few feet over my head at the listening position, which is pretty much where they're supposed to go. I think I'd get a better effect with dipole surrounds, since standard speakers are easy to localise in a small room which is contrary to the intended effect of surround sound, but it's not a major problem.
A lot of people have really crappy subwoofers, if they have them at all, but they don't notice since they only care about loudness. I really don't like listening to sloppy, distorted bass, which is why I made sure to get a subwoofer with high fidelity and precise controlled output (though of course it can play loudly when called for). In addition to being excellent for music, it is also easy to tell which films put effort in creating good LFE and which just use generic one-note boom for everything.
Probably going to see Prisoner of Azkaban tonight . . . my girlfriend really doesn't like that one very much, because of the issues with Hermione's portrayal that I mentioned earlier, but since it's been a long time since either of us watched it we're hoping those moments will pass by peacefully. lol
Last non-HP film I saw was It's Complicated.
We're watching all the Harry Potter films again in anticipation of the next release. Just saw Chamber of Secrets, four more to go in the next week, lol.
It's so nice finally hearing them in full 5.1 again for the first time since seeing them in the theatres; there is some impressive use of the surround channels and LFE that I'd really been missing before. And of course I love the John Williams scores (damn disappointing that he didn't do any of the others, and won't be doing the last one as had been rumoured).
I used to be rather active in Harry Potter fandom, going over the books in a lot of detail, and it has to be said that there are numerous places where the movies destroy various aspects of characterisation through unfortunate screenwriting and directing choices, particularly in giving a lot of Ron's best moments to Hermione so that Emma Watson can badly overact them (ironically, her performance in the first film was actually the most convincing). Still, it's not nearly as bad as stuff that was changed in Lord of the Rings, so I don't usually fret about it too much, and the later ones have been much better in that regard.
Did you know that 'George Herbert Walker Bush' is an anagram of 'Huge Berserk Rebel Warthog'?
Somebody's mom might have a detachable penis . . .
Was he dead?
He might as well have been, seeing as just looking at him was like staring at a flashing sign screaming out "Heart Attack Bait!"
So I do dispyoot yer probayshunz, Mistah Frink.
This thread is now about . . . huge hairy guys! wahaha!
I saw the hugest hairy guy down at the burger joint last night. Man was that guy huge and hairy!
Looking forward to it, d_j!
Sounds good having two versions, a maximum video bitrate is a good thing for those with big screens and high quality de-interlacing/scaling to take advantage of it, and of course I like the 5.1 mixes. ;) But plenty of people will want to have the choice of audio options. Hmm, maybe I'll have to see if I can get both. lol
So what's the final tally on the audio tracks? There's theatrical stereo, mono, 70mm 5.1, '85 and '93 mixes for Star Wars; and Empire and Jedi have theatrical and '93 stereo and music-edited 5.1, if I'm not mistaken. The 5.1 versions are 448 kbps, are the stereo tracks 192, and 96 for the mono?
Maybe we should see about getting copies of these to that prillaman fellow who used to review various Star Wars dvd's, along with an in-depth description of all the work that's gone into them. I'm sure he'd be interested in seeing what's been going in the fan preservation world, since the combined efforts of everyone who has contributed to these has ended up in a much higher quality project than previous attempts at preserving the original trilogy, even with the limits of the source material available. Hmm . . .
Try it now, I put up part five again with a new link.
Sorry for the delay--for some reason the uploading was proving problematic this time. I hadn't planned on posting links for FLAC versions of my edits of Empire and Jedi, since they aren't 70mm versions as Star Wars is, so I was going to present them as 5.1 only. But since there have been some requests, I decided to make them available. Having lossless sources is always a good thing, of course.
Both tracks have been uploaded as RAR archives in seven parts, also including the LFE channels for each in case anyone wants to create their own 5.1 versions, whether to use a different upmix process, or for editing to match a video source that isn't GOUT-synched, or what have you. Both tracks are largely unchanged from their respective 1993 mixes, containing only the following differences:
Empire re-instates the missing snowspeeder crash sound from the 1980 stereo, and the unedited music cue for Fett's departure from Bespin as heard in the 1997 mix, as well as fixing two glitches in the '93. Jedi includes the deleted music in the Obi-wan scene, and uses the 1983 stereo for Vader's defeat.
Empire part one: http://www.sendspace.com/file/05pxxf
Empire part two: http://www.sendspace.com/file/oje70h
Empire part three: http://www.sendspace.com/file/2grsbo
Empire part four: http://www.sendspace.com/file/p9i327
Empire part five: http://www.sendspace.com/file/s2ik31
Empire part six: http://www.sendspace.com/file/f5tq0c
Empire part seven: http://www.sendspace.com/file/mrl7ox
Jedi part one: http://www.sendspace.com/file/l9fenz
Jedi part two: http://www.sendspace.com/file/qfx1x1
Jedi part three: http://www.sendspace.com/file/s57ow5
Jedi part four: http://www.sendspace.com/file/ybmmsv
Jedi part five: http://www.sendspace.com/file/xh3kqh
Jedi part six: http://www.sendspace.com/file/0d5wfa
Jedi part seven: http://www.sendspace.com/file/n4x24o
John Cleese, on Monty Python's Flying Circus, episode 24. (How Not To Be Seen)
Some people have made the mistake of seeing Shunt's work as a load of rubbish about railway time tables, but clever people like me who talk loudly in restaurants see it as a deliberate ambiguity, a plea for understanding in a mechanised world. The points are frozen, the beast is dead. What is the difference? What indeed is the point? The point is frozen, the beast is late out of Paddington. The point is taken.
If La Fontaine's elk would spurn Tom Jones, the engine must be our head, the dining car our oesophagus, the guard's van our left lung, the cattle truck our shins, the first-class compartment the piece of skin at the nape of the neck, and the level crossing an electric elk called Simon. The clarity is devastating. But where is the ambiguity? It's over there, in a box. Shunt is saying the 8.15 from Gillingham when in reality he means the 8.13 from Gillingham. The train is the same only the time is altered. Ecce home, ergo elk. La Fontaine knew his sister and knew her bloody well. The point is taken; the beast is moulting, the fluff gets up your nose.
The illusion is complete. It is reality; the reality is illusion and the ambiguity is the only truth. But is the truth, as Hitchcock observes, in the box? No, there isn't room--the ambiguity has put on weight. The point is taken, the elk is dead, the beast stops at Swindon, Chabrol stops at nothing, I am having treatment, and La Fontaine can get knotted.
It's because present day shooter games are usually lame and stupid. GoldenEye was the shit and still is, with Perfect Dark not far behind. I still play both from time to time and enjoy them as much as I ever did, if not as obsessively. ;)
Good god, has anyone here managed to beat the Aztec level on 00 Agent difficulty? I've still never managed that feat, though I've come close. I had to cave and use a Gameshark to get past it in the end, so I could unlock the Egyptian.
No idea whether the Craig-ified "remake" is any good, but it surely won't have the same kind of feel as the original, even if it turns out to be a decent game in its own right. Does seem like the Wii remote would lend itself to shooter games, though.
Posted from mah hairy lolcat aisse, prapsy. :p
i mayd you a reesonabl poste, but i delteted it.
Im on ur traynin weelz runnin ovre ur zombeezez.
There once was a man named Crockett
Who stuck his junk in a socket
Some son of a bitch
Pulled the switch
And he flew through the wall like a rocket.